Canucks & Beyond
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What Vancouver Needs: More Swedes
by Alanah McGinley on 04/13/08 at 06:13 AM ET
Comments (8)
From Darren Dreger at TSN:
Highly touted Swedish prospect Fabian Brunnstrom is closing in on becoming a Vancouver Canuck. The Canucks and Brunnstrom’s agent JP Barry are hoping to have something finalized within the next week to ten days as the process has heated up over the last few days.
The same basic information was also repeated by Scott Morrison on CBC’s Hotstove Saturday night as well [video available here].
So: the hottest, unsigned forward to be talked about around the NHL for the last 4 months might be coming to Vancouver next season? How’d that happen?
Back in January, Jeff Marek at CBC noted that the frontrunners for Brunnstrom were Detroit, Toronto and Vancouver. A few days after that, Helene St. James in her Detroit Free Press blog commented, “I hear he’s already made up his mind about coming to Detroit.” (Interesting, although “I hear” doesn’t really say much about her sourcing. But maybe in Detroit, “I hear” is proper format for breaking news? Who knows. Wings fans/journalists = freakshow). 
Meanwhile, Dreger’s guess (and let’s face it: if a deal is still 7-10 days away, he’s guessing about any detail JP Barry didn’t personally dictate to him on Saturday) is a deal of 2+ years for $2+ million per. Morrison’s guess was about 3 years.
You know, all of this would be sort of exciting if this weren’t the Vancouver Canucks of 2008 we were talking about. Has Dave Nonis even run this by his favorite coach yet?? I fear Alain Vigneault may have strenuous objections to any player that might fantasize about spending time in the offensive zone…
But while the excitement lasts, more on Brunnstrom can be found in a brief November 2007 profile in The Hockey News, plus video here and here.
Be sure to check it all out. I think it’s important that we all appreciate his exceptional skill level before Vancouver signs him and turns him into a $2 million traffic cone.
Update 12:30pm PT: George Malik at MLive has more on the Brunnstrom story.
_______________________
*photo from CBC.ca
Filed in: vancouver canucks | Canucks and Beyond | Permalink
Tags: fabian+brunnstrom, sweden, vancouver+canucks,
Comments
I’ve seen a handful of his games this season...and he is a man amongst boys om the Swedish elite league. But, I have to be a bit skeptical about any immediate impact he may have on the NHL.
Posted by GZ Expat from Chiner on 04/13/08 at 04:33 PM ET
Canuckfan -- You’re in good company with the cynicism. I’m not exactly a great stop these days for anyone that wants to feel chipper about this team. (The lasting funk of missing the playoffs, I guess...)
GZ Expat -- One good thing about this story is that Nonis is showing signs of least wanting offense-type play on this team. Plus, getting our hands on an under-the-radar player that Detroit also wants could only be a good thing—unlike the Canucks, the Red Wings scouting staff is practically psychic when it comes to finding diamonds in the rough.
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 04/13/08 at 07:56 PM ET
I could swear I read that he couldn’t sign until after the World Championships. But I guess that’s dependent on him being on Sweden’s team. He supposedly was also “demanding” top six minutes (for some reason that doesn’t seem to ring true to me), which the Canucks could much more easily offer him than the Wings.
Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 04/14/08 at 08:22 AM ET
Confirmation that the Red Wings are out of the Brunnstrom sweepstakes from Bruce MacLeod, the outstanding Wings beat writer for The Macomb Daily.
http://redwingscorner.blogspot.com/2008/04/wings-not-getting-brunnstrom.html
Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 04/14/08 at 11:30 AM ET
is it too early to start the fabio jokes?
Posted by grey wall from vancouver on 04/14/08 at 11:33 AM ET
You mean like…
Following his first game in a Vancouver Canucks uniform, Fabio Brunnstrom was overheard telling his agent, “I can’t believe it’s not hockey!”
Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 04/14/08 at 12:03 PM ET
“I fear Alain Vigneault may have strenuous objections to any player that might fantasize about spending time in the offensive zone…” That’s beautiful, maybe (please, oh please) Nonis knows of a coaching change coming and therefor having offensive zone players won’t be a bad thing.
Posted by Devin from Victoria on 04/14/08 at 12:18 PM ET
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About Canucks & Beyond
Alanah McGinley has been blogging hockey since 2003, sharing opinions, rants and not-so-deep thoughts with anyone who will listen. In addition to writing Canucks & Beyond and helping manage Kukla’s Korner, Alanah is one of the founders and co-hosts of The Crazy Canucks Podcast, as featured at Canucks.com.
She has contributed pieces to FoxSports.com and the New York Times Slapshot blog, as well as other stray destinations in cyberspace.
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File this under “believe it when we see it.” I’m not sure if I have any hopes left, buried under the ashes of this season, and they certainly aren’t going to rise based on vague rumours of possibly talented Swedish forwards.
Why yes, I am feeling cynical today, now that you ask.
Posted by Canuckfan on 04/13/08 at 02:39 PM ET